MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE OF SEASTAR IN HARI ISLAND WATERS, SOUTHEAST SULAWESI
Article Sidebar
Abstract
The objective of this study was to explore the information on the microhabitat preference of asteroidea in Hari Island Waters, Southeast Sulawesi. The specimens were collected in August 2012 and December 2012. The methods used in this study were road sampling technique, freehandpicking, and observation. The geographical coordinate position of the asteroidea and microhabitat were recorded by using GPS and then mapped by using the ArcGIS 10.1. Asteroidea map was overlayed with microhabitat map to determine the microhabitat preference. The study found 9 species of asteroidea belonging to 7 generas, 4 families, and 2 orders. All the asteroidea were relatively common species in the tropical shallow waters. The species were distributed along sides of the island with majority found in the northern side. The dominant species, Linckia laevigata, was found in all microhabitat which had beed adapted to various microhabitat conditions and water fluctuation. Based on area of distribution and population density, seastar tended to use reef coral as its microhabitat preference since reef coral could serve as a food source and habitat protection.
Keywords: Seastar, microhabitat preference, Hari island
Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Jurnal Ilmu dan Teknologi Kelautan Tropis i is an open-access journal, meaning that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without needing to request prior permission from the publisher or the author.
All articles published by Jurnal Ilmu dan Teknologi Kelautan Tropis are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided proper credit is given to the original authors.
Authors submitting manuscripts should understand and agree that the copyright of published manuscripts is retained by the authors. Copyright encompasses the exclusive rights of authors to reproduce, distribute, and sell any part of the journal articles in all forms and media. Reproduction of any part of this journal, its storage in databases, and its transmission by any form or media is allowed without written permission from Jurnal Ilmu dan Teknologi Kelautan Tropis.